Andrea Dovizioso battled throughout the Dutch TT with Ben Spies before finishing on the podium in third.

The Tech3 Yamaha rider fought with his his factory counterpart throughout the 24 lap race before battling past in the closing laps. The result allowed Dovizioso to remain fifth in the championship standings as he continues to cement his strong start to the campaign.

“The battle with Ben was really beautiful because when I made a mistake he pushed really hard,” said the Italian.

I made one 1m34s lap, so it was very fast, I have to improve and be able to do that laptime in the beginning of the race but my feeling of the bike wasn’t give enough to push 100% like in some other races. So the battle was good.”

“He [Spies] had bad luck with the rear tyre, just like Valentino [Rossi]. I don’t understand if it’s because they are sliding more or if there was some [error] with their tyres.”